There can be few places on earth that have offered greater opportunities to engineers since the end of the second world war than Hong Kong.

Huge building booms and increases in value that far outstripped the occasional bust created a world-famous skyline and one of most profitable property markets in the world.

Massive, benchmark-setting infrastructure projects secured Hong Kong's status as one of the world's premier locations and a regional centre of excellence for the construction industry.

Today, with the continuing development of Macau's gaming industry, a buoyant Hong Kong construction market, and the non-stop pouring of concrete on the mainland, prospects for engineers - local and from around the world - remain strong.

Companies such as Gammon - a main contractor on projects such as the MTR's Island Line West Link and the government's Tamar development - invest heavily in recruiting the highest calibre young engineers into their graduate trainee programmes.

The Gammon graduate training programme focuses on all-round development, and consists of a three-year training and job-rotation, with trainees guided by experienced engineering professionals in the various construction disciplines as they go.

A one-year fellowship programme offers undergraduates opportunities to take the first steps towards their professional future in construction. Nearly 200 new graduates have joined Gammon in the past three years.

Successful engineering candidates can look forward to working on some of Hong Kong's and the region's most prestigious infrastructure and new building main-contractor projects, including the HK$2.9 billion joint venture with Leighton Asia to construct the West Kowloon terminus approach tunnel and track-fan tunnel section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link.

Gammon's people development strategy has been recognised by the Employee Retraining Board, Hong Kong Management Association and the American Society for Training and Development.